Coding device



Jan. 8, 1952 H. E. wlRTH conING DEVICE Filed July 5. 1945 Patented Jan. 8, 1952 j ,UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE y ooDrNG DEVICE Henry E. Wirth, Philadelphia, ra. ApplihatiohJuly 5, 1945, serial No. 603,394

2 Claims. (Cl. 35-2) (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as

amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or `for the Government for.governmentalwpurposes, without the` payment of any royalty thereon. 4 w

Radio circuit components such as resistors or capacitors are marked according to a color code. This color code designates the size of the resistor in ohms or of the capacitor in micromicrofarads, the percentage of tolerance permitted either the capacitor or resistor, and the direct current voltage which may safely be applied to the capacitor.

It is an object of my invention to provide a coding device which permits an unskilled or inexperienced person to determine the proposed markings to be applied to a radio circuit component or to read the size and other electric characteristics of such a component. In other words, my device enables a person unfamiliar with the code to encode or decode according to the code selected.

An example of such color codes is the Radio Manufacturers Association color code. These codes are changed from time to time which would necessitate a remarking of my device but, since the codes form no part of my invention, my device is applicable to codes of various kinds.

More specifically, it is an object of my invention to provide a coding device consisting of a body, a slide mounted for movement on said body and having representations of radio circuit components thereon, a plurality of movable elements mounted on said body so as to expose selected portions thereof which are of diiierent colors and which bear diiierent notations thereon, and guide lines leading from the said movable elements to selected parts of the representations. These representations correspond to radio circuit elements which it is desired to encode or decode so that the position of the movable elements corresponds to the color which the connected portion of the representations should be.

My invention is obviously capable of many embodiments of which but one has been selected for illustration in the drawings and description in the specication.

The single figure of the drawings is a face or plan view.

The selected embodiment of .my invention comprises a body l conveniently made of two pieces of thick cardboard spaced from each other in a direction perpendicular to the plane or" the drawing so as 'to provide a passage or way 2 therethrough. In this passage or way is mounted a slide 3 which has a plurality of representations 2 of radio circuit components thereon. Butone of these representations (designated at 4) is to be seen in the drawings. It comprises a front and rear view of a resistor. Pivotally mounted on body I are a plurality of movable elements 5 in the form of discs. Each disc is divided into sectors of different colors as is seen at line 55 and each sector carries a numeral 6 thereon. Guide lines 1, 8, 9, IU lead from a point adjacent each of the discs 5 to the edge of a perforation Il. Perforation Il exposes a portion of way 2 and a part of the surface of slide 3 therein. Through perforation Il one of the representations 4 of a radio circuit component is exposed. Additional lines 11, 88, 99, and Il!) lead from the line 1, 8, 9, and ID respectively to parts of the representations 4. Lines 1, 8, 9, and l0 are differently colored. Lines Tl, 88, 99 and H0 are colored the same as the corresponding lines, l, 8, 9, or l0 respectively.

It is believed that the operation of my device will be readily understood from the foregoing. Assume that it is desired to read the amount of an unknown resistor in ohms. Slide 3 is adjusted until a representation 4 corresponding to the unknown resistor is exposed through perforation Il. The lines 11, 88, 99 and H9 contact the corresponding lines 1, 8, 9, and i9. Discs 5 are then adjusted so that their exposed sectors correspond with the colors on those portions of the representation 4 to which each disc is connected by lines 'l and 11, 8 and 88, 9 and 99, l0 and IIU respectively. The digits or numeral 6 which are then exposed on the disc 5 are read oi. In the example shown the rst 3 digits or numerals represent the resistance in ohms while the right hand digit (to which the reference character E has been applied) represents the tolerance in percentage plus or minus.

I claim:

l. A device for encoding as code markings certain characteristics of electric circuit components or for decoding such code markings to determine such characteristics, comprising: a body; a member mounted on and movable with respect to the body; on the member, a plurality of representations of electric circuit components, each representation being marked in a code which indicates certain characteristics of the components and guide lines associated with the elements of said code; on the body, adjustable indicating means bearing code markings corresponding to those on the member and additional markings for translating the code; said body including guide lines with which the code markings of a vrepresentation may be aligned,

`code markings of the member.V

l2. A device for encoding as code markings certain characteristics Vof electric circuit com-`A ponents or for decoding such code markings to determine such characteristics, comprising: a body, a member mounted on and movable with respect to the body; said member having :thereon a plurality of representations of electric circuit components, each representation corresponding to a component and being Amarked in acode which indicates certain characteristics, of the component; indicating means on said body having a plurality of portions each of which bears a code. marking .corresponding to" one` ofthe code. markings on the member and an additional marking for` translating the code marking; said body also including guide lines with which guide ings of the representation to an edge of the lines of a representation may be aligned, said lines serving also to associate the member code markings with the indicating means; the indieating means being adjustable so that its portions bearing the corresponding code markings may be matched with the code markings of the member; .an aperture in-said bodyilarge enough to permit atleast one'fof "the 'representations tobe visible at a time; each representation including guide lines leading from the code markaperture, the latter guide lines being capable of alignment at the edge of the aperture with HENRY E. WIRTH.

REFERENCES CITED ,The followingreferences are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTSA y v Number Name Date'f 2,155,851 Weitsman Apri 25,- 19'39 Wesner Nov. '19,1940 

